#I didn't explain the genre elegy very well but that's not important lol

[booksanddarkchocolate]

Okay I did really want to make a whole essay about the door but I don't think I'll actually do that (if I do feel like it, I still will!) but I do really wanna talk about the door in the song 'Legally Blonde'.

In an old genre of the Augustean period (elegy, which are basically specific love poems) there was a reoccurring motif called 'paraklausithyron'. Paraklausithyron is basically (typically) a man outside a house (or anything with a door) begging for the love of (typically) a woman inside the house. The door is an important aspect of it, because a door can open and close while a wall, for example, can't.

You can actually see this motif in a lot of different modern media as well (whether it's on purpose or not). In the Legally Blonde song it's very clear as Emmett is quite literally begging and confessing his love to Elle with a door in between:

What about love? I never mentioned love The timing's bad, I know But perhaps if I'd made it more clear That you belong right here You wouldn't have to go 'Cause you'd know that I'm so much in love

And most importantly for my point, a little after this: Please will you open the door

What's interesting in that motif as well, is that the typical gender roles are almost switched (the woman is the domina ('mistress' as in boss) and she decides whether the begging goes unanswered or not (remember this motif was a thing in around 0 BCE)). Legally Blonde's whole thing is Elle defying her stereotypes, so she is a domina.

Also some more moments in musical theater where I've seen this motif: Frozen (in 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman?', sisterly love this time, which fits in the theme of Frozen) and Heathers (in 'Meant to Be Yours', the whole part of Veronica! Open the door please, Veronica will you open the door, which is an entire different kind of love again). Also probably more but I can't think of any at the top of my head.

This 🤏🏻 close to writing an essay about Legally Blonde the musical ngl